To walk for hours close to nature at nightfall. Listening to the wild grass crumple and the pine cones crack under your feet. Collecting branches of evergreen, snapping them, smelling their resinous odor on our fingertips. Then to lie back and enjoy the moonlight, as though alone in the world... Perfumers Camille Goutal and Isabelle Doyen have created a dream world, inspired by their nightly escapades in pristine open spaces. A majestic forest where waterfalls flow between the trees, where aromatic fragrances warm the skin, and pebbles form soft beds. Where the thrill of its sheer immensity consorts with absolute serenity, and where you stand and watch the stars as they illuminate the present moment.
An enchanted forest, amid a starry night...
Are you tempted by this escapade ?

Re: Conehead alert: new Annick Goutal "Nuit Etoilée" (Starry Night)

Mine bottle of Nuit Etoilee is on it's way already!! Can't wait to see this azurre bottle. So gorgeous! And the scent - amazing. Wonderful woods, crushed pine needles, it's so very aromatic! And after two hours it smells like a night by a campfire.

Re: Conehead alert: new Annick Goutal "Nuit Etoilée" (Starry Night)

Great to hear from a true Conehead, red!
The scent is the current feature attraction on the Annick Goutal website. It is offered in two bottle styles: a curved fluted shape for women, and a square shape for men. As far as I can tell, the scent is identical in each format.
Here are the notes, according to the site.
Citrus, aromatic, woody
(Essences of : citron, sweet orange, peppermint, Siberian pine - Balsam fir and everlasting absolutes - Angelica seeds)

Re: Conehead alert: new Annick Goutal "Nuit Etoilée" (Starry Night)

I want to join the Coneheads! Love the scent of evergreens in any context, especially fragrances. I have a few (such as SL Filles en Aiguilles)...sadly, one of them, Creed Epicea, is now discontinued. I think Granville would be a good addition, as would this one from AG. Any others, guys?

Re: Conehead alert: new Annick Goutal "Nuit Etoilée" (Starry Night)

Originally Posted by cologne connoisseur

I want to join the Coneheads! Love the scent of evergreens in any context, especially fragrances. I have a few (such as SL Filles en Aiguilles)...sadly, one of them, Creed Epicea, is now discontinued. I think Granville would be a good addition, as would this one from AG. Any others, guys?

To answer your question - any other, guys? Aleksandr by Arquiste is very nice. I have odered a sample of Nuit Etoilée.

Re: Conehead alert: new Annick Goutal "Nuit Etoilée" (Starry Night)

For all those favoring Conehead scents, please do check out my Coneheads discussion group. Just join if this appeals to you, we are glad to have more members. There are lots of archived discussions of many great scents.
Creed Cypres-Musc is my favorite, followed closely by L'Artisan Parfumer Fou D'Absinthe and the sadly discontinued L'Occitance 4 Voleurs. Eau de Rochas Homme is a great lemony-pine scent, as was suggested. Hard to find, but worth checking, is Magic Helvetia's La Base for Him. Granville is excellent... and in all seriousness, don't overlook the humble Pino Silvestre.
Cheers!

Re: Conehead alert: new Annick Goutal "Nuit Etoilée" (Starry Night)

Based purely on one spritz on my wrist from the SA.

The front end does seem more "twinkle twinkle little star" than "deep, dark forest". It has a brightness and optimism to it - I am guessing that this is from a moderately sweet citrus accord (more orange than bergamot), mint and the angelica coming up from underneath. I say 'mint' guardedly because I don't sense any apparent mint but a year ago I sampled some mint from Guerlain, one of the solo notes they use for workshops, and it had a 'turquoise brightness' to it that I really did not peg as mint at all, and there is a similar brightness here.

The angelica provides a sort of ambery glow of warmth with a slight herbal touch, not as full on plantlike as the Guerlain Angelique Noir(?) and not as soapy as the wonderful l'Occitane shampoo. It has a finesse to it that's very relaxed, for want of a better word.

All the while I'm looking for pine or similar and certainly at this level I'm not getting it - there's certainly no galbanum or tart green-ness going on at all here, it is a very approachable, almost languorous feeling. It will not make you want to fill your lungs and burst into song from the nearest mountaintop.

A couple of hours in, at home now after a dodging a major thunderstorm, I am definitely sensing a sort of dried pine-needles in the sun pathway and occasional brush with some low hanging soft fir tree foliage sort of mood. The scent strip is a little crisper, with a more expansive green + angelica presence.

I like it but would really like to give it a proper wearing - Goutal's on the whole are quite subtle and I imagine a few blasts would open things up and reveal a bit more and I suspect this is a more of a cramped peek from behind a window at what's on offer than standing out amongst it all and taking in the whole vista. One spritz is not enough

Best I can do for now - will revisit in the next few days, there's another Goutal counter near my office where I can try things myself without the SA clutching the bottle for dear life.

P.S. Impeccable ingredients, as always from Goutal. Not a shrill moment along the way, all culminating in a very gentle parting - makes you wonder why other houses can't pay as much attention to the end as the front.

Re: Conehead alert: new Annick Goutal "Nuit Etoilée" (Starry Night)

Cool, thanks guys. I thought of you SOS for a minute because the 'turquoise mint' made me think of MPG's opening (Bois de Turquie?) which i think was mint / orange flower? Just a flash of similarity in feel.

Re: Conehead alert: new Annick Goutal "Nuit Etoilée" (Starry Night)

Thanks for the great review! I love your deep description of the notes and facets, where you're really reaching for analogous ways to describe them. It's very helpful!

Originally Posted by mr. reasonable

Best I can do for now - will revisit in the next few days, there's another Goutal counter near my office where I can try things myself without the SA clutching the bottle for dear life.

I can just hear her inner Church Lady... "That's right. One to a customer. There you go. Now isn't that nice? Wouldn't you say it's a pleasant scent? I would."

Originally Posted by mr. reasonable

P.S. Impeccable ingredients, as always from Goutal. Not a shrill moment along the way, all culminating in a very gentle parting - makes you wonder why other houses can't pay as much attention to the end as the front.

Agreed. I almost think the scent experience reflects the user experience and the sale itself. Long-term craftsmanship for long-term customers. "Quickie" scents for quickie sales to faithless customers.

Also it seems that many popular fragrances have defaulted to linearity as a way of routinely satisfying large numbers of users, rather than crafting a development that risks offending them by transition to "something other than what the topnotes advertised".